Nicki Minaj is known for transcending above the norm. From her music to her major business moves with Macys, MAC, and Kmart. The 30-year-old Trinidadian beauty recently added another accomplishment to her list of successes by being the first rapper to grace the cover of Marie Claire’s magazine. In the August issue, with Nicki discusses men, motherhood, her first dream career as a lawyer, and American Idol. Peep the excepts below.

On Men and Relationships:

Don’t chase any man. Put your school first. Men love independent women. You don’t have to be a b*tch, but there’s nothing wrong with it at times. And: Men are kids at heart. They want to be nourished and pet like a dog.

Becoming a Mom One Day:

I want to be a mom one day, and I want to start becoming the woman who I want to parent my child.’ I wanted all of the feelings of entitlement to leave me, because some people have this life for a year or five or 10 – and a lot of them lose it. I didn’t want to become a person who wasn’t enjoying the moment.

Pursuing an Acting Career:

I at least want to do three more albums. One day, when I start getting a couple gray hairs, maybe it will all be only acting. I just never know. I’ve kind of become the poster child for doing the things that no one expects.”

Being On Fox’s American Idol:

The perception that people had of me completely changed because there are no cue cards, there’s no script, and it wasn’t me performing a song. It was, ‘Let’s see your real personality. My core is a genuine human being who roots for other people. I didn’t want to blow smoke up their ass. I wanted every contestant to leave with something that they could remember.”

Peep pics from the shoot below.

Nicki will be releasing her third studio album tentatively entitled, “ Pink Print” next year and is making her acting debut in the upcoming comedy ‘The Other Woman,’ with Cameron Diaz. The issue hits newsstands August 16th.

She needs to go awaaay. Her rhymes are the worst. If you want longevity in the rap game work on your craft. i think there were two songs where her lyrics were killin’ it! Then she sounded wack, then she became commercial, and now white folks are taking too long to realize that black folks ain’t feelin’ her like that anymore. Nikki was smart to jump over to the white, comercial, “mainstrem” side before black folks started to see she’s WACK! I respect her business strategy though. Talent…wack!!!